In September, my wife, Diane Emerson, and I took a round-trip, electric car trip from Vashon to San Francisco.

We decided to embark on the trip for a few reasons. Because of climate change, we have cut way back on fossil fuel-based traveling but traveling by electric car was a climate-friendly way to go.

We also knew that we would be pioneers going on such a long trip by electric car and that we would hopefully gain some insights that could make it easier for others to do the same.

So here you go!

Taking an electric car on a long-distance trip requires some considerations and planning above and beyond was is needed with a gas-powered vehicle, of course.

Get to know which charger types work for your car. For our Chevy Bolt, the J-1772 is the most common style that works.

The Chevy Bolt does not come with a spare wheel or tools to change it. If you buy a Bolt, we recommend buying a spare wheel, the tools needed to change it, a small portable air compressor for slow leaks, and a pressure gauge.

Bolts come with self-sealing tires. But that term is misleading. We got a nail in a tire at the start of the trip, but the tire only self-sealed for about 110 miles of driving it over the course of about a day and a half.

Then. the Chevy dealer, in Portland. claimed the tire could not be repaired but that we would have to replace the whole wheel — which they could not do for at least two days.

We got towed to a Les Schwab where workers offered to repair it or provide a new wheel. We went with a new wheel. It worked fine for the trip and after.

Be aware that many people — including professionals in the field that you encounter — will not be very knowledgeable about many aspects of electric cars and chargers. Try hard to determine that they actually know what they claim they know.

It can take one to two hours every day for navigation of charger-choice decisions, calculating how far you can and should go, and other related analyses.

It will take another two to four hours for charging your car each day. And if you plan to see a lot of sights on the trip and if you will be camping a lot, we recommend very short mileage trips — 75 miles average each day, or less. Due to this time demand for each day on the road, we suggest two rest days per week.

Unless you have a Tesla or car that can use Tesla or other fast chargers, you will likely be using Level 2 chargers, which only provide 25 to 30 miles per hour of charging.

The Plugshare app shows the locations of most chargers, detailing what types are offered where. Sometimes the app provides details on the availability of chargers and recent customer reviews.

But expect to find some chargers broken, or reserved for customers, or in use. Don’t bet the farm on a particular charger working or being available. Always have a plan B. However, we almost always found chargers available for our use, except in San Francisco and Eugene.

Sign up for apps of chargers as you encounter those models along the way.

EVCS is one of the best, mostly because once you have signed up, it takes seconds to get the charging going. We often encountered challenges in trying to use the ChargePoint charger. Shell Recharge chargers worked great, regardless of Shell’s major culpability for climate change.

With some chargers, having an account speeds up the time required to get charging going. Sometimes the apps don’t help or work. Sometimes you can get your car charged by using a credit card tapped on the front of the charger.

Other times, you will have to call the charger company, in order to provide the serial number of the charger.

Sometimes the internet connection is so bad at the time you are there that it won’t work, and you’ll have to try another charger, somewhere else. If you are camping, it is worth spending time to find campgrounds that have chargers.

Try to avoid letting the battery miles drop too low based on the assumption that at a fictitious future date you will catch up. Depending on the length of the trip, it is best to plan your trip days around two stops for charging, for one to three hours each time each day. Find chargers located near places that have 1-3 hours of interesting activities.

The mileage range for your car will vary based on driving speed, use of heat or AC, ups and downs and sharp turns in the roads, and more.

In planning your trip ahead of time and while on the trip, we recommend that you go back and forth between Plugshare and Google Maps to find chargers that have things of interest nearby like parks, trails, ocean views, grocery stores, restaurants, coffee, shops, and whatever else is of interest.

But be aware that for long stretches of the northern California and Oregon coast, there is no internet access. This means you will need to plan out your charging and other stops and sights before those dead zones — unless your car will provide an internet connection in those zones.

Even after these challenges, we would do a road trip again in our electric car.

But we would only go half the distance and we would take more non-driving days.

— Michael Laurie has been a sustainability consultant for over 30 years.